Have been jamming away on an idea and after getting community feedback, have decided to run with it and turn it into a fully fledged game. The idea is to create chaos and take a selfie which is then scored. The more crazier, and stylish, the shot, the more points scored.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would love to hear them.
I’ll be posting updates as the project progresses and implement community suggestions! I’ve also created a Facebook page as well if you would rather follow progress on there: Redirecting...
Mini update for Selfie Chaos - it now features a ‘like/heart’ points system for selfies. The more chaotic or “interesting” the shot, the more likes/shares. Additional hints can then be revealed through the internal comments.
‘Likes’ can then be cashed in for upgrades/unlocks etc
One of the first things I had to ensure was that the photo could only ever be scored depending if the objects could be seen within the pyramid FOV and nothing was obscuring the camera view. One of the first problems faced was if the ‘vehicle’ was partially obscured (enough to cover the pivot point), it would register as a blocked view. To get round this, I setup additional checkpoints around items and as long one of these ‘visibility checks’ could be made, the item could then be scored:
In this video, the red lines were indicating a blocked line of sight to one of the visibility points:
Next up was devising some form of item placement system. The aim was to make it super easy for the player to setup the world. The items were placed in a tray on the right and the player could then drag/drop the vehicles/explosives/items onto the world. The player would also need to setup a player start as well:
Next up was figuring out item/player rotation. I wanted the rotation UI to be world-based however parenting the canvas to the item/player would cause it to also rotate. This meant restructuring the item hierarchy so there was a further parent that held both the item and the canvas.
I’m still debating if it’s best to have 90’ degree rotations only (in keeping with the blocky aesthetics) or have a more free-form rotation so any angle could be selected. I also lifted the rotation UI to above the item. Originally I had it based on the floor however with the large variety of items and sizing, the potential was there for the rotation controls to be obscured.
One thing that bugged me whilst working on this was that the phone would have to be held by the character but this would effectively block off being able to use the character animation. Using FinalIK, I was able to have the best of both worlds
Finally back to some physics! I created a base window panel I could then use to start creating a properties window for placed items. In this example, I’m now able to adjust the forward velocity of the vehicles:
Some of you may have noticed more items beginning to appear in the item tray (ramps) but more importantly, on the bottom are several category buttons (vehicle, prop, explosives). The idea is to remove the inventory tray and instead have separate windows - this way all the items are easily categorised without having to force the player to scroll through everything
